What to Do Before Meeting with Your College Academic Advisor

In high school, you had a guidance counselor. In college, you'll have an academic advisor. The difference? Your advisor is typically a professor you pick to help guide you through your years at college. Like counselors, advisors provide you with the standard course and career advice; however, their advice is much more tailored to you and your needs. Whether you're an incoming freshman or a junior who never got the hang of advising meetings, these tips will help you get the most of your meeting.

1. Choosing your advisor

Obviously you must have an advisor before you can meet with anyone. If you're an incoming student, your college most likely will assign you to an advisor. Once you choose your major and get to know your professors more, you'll be able to change advisors if you so desire.

To make a good choice, you should look out for professors who are reliable, responsive, and specialize in the same area you seek to study. If you've already chosen an advisor but want to change, don't be afraid to do so, but be tactful. Don't criticize your old advisor (after all, you may have a class again with this professor). Tell her that you found someone better suited for the subject in which you're interested.

2. Always look at your course requirements beforehand

One of the most important tasks your advisor performs is making sure that you're taking all the required courses necessary to graduate. However, your advisor is human. Make sure you understand what's required of you; your advisor could miss something. If you're familiar with the college's requirements, you'll also have the opportunity to question your advisor if a requirement doesn't make sense to you.

3. Pick out your own classes

Your advisor is a busy person. Besides meeting with you, he also has to meet with the rest of his advisees along with performing his regular responsibilities of having classes to run, papers to grade, and research to do. That means he doesn't have time to pick out all of your classes for you. That's your responsibility.

By planning out your course schedule, you'll (1) please your advisor and (2) allow her more time to ensure everything is in order and that you have the proper requirements in place. Of course, if you have questions about whether to take one course over another one, your advisor should be happy to help guide you there too.

4. Write out your questions ahead of time

Likewise, you'll also gain more time if you plan your questions in advance. If you have any questions about your courses or your future career, be sure to write it down so you remember to ask him. Other areas you may want to question your advisor on are whether there are special programs or opportunities that are suited to your interests, any internships you should know about, and anything else they think you should do to advance your skills.

5. Understand your advisor can't answer all of your questions

Your advisor can't plan out your life. You still have to make the major decisions such as what to choose for your major, whether to go to graduate school, or which career to pursue. Maybe you can find an extraordinarily perceptive advisor who can answer those questions, but advisors generally tell you how you can go about your decision-making process. So don't expect firm advice on what you should do but rather how you should it.

Conclusion

By following these tips, you'll impress your advisor. And if your advisor isn't impressed, think how unimpressed she'd be if you had done nothing to prepare for your meeting. But what matters most is you'll get better advice for college and beyond.